Transcription in English
I’m Olivia. I started working as a freelancer during my last year of studies at the university of applied sciences. The best title to describe my job is digital visual artist because I do various types of digital work: graphic design, vector work, video editing, photo editing, 3D animations, visual modelling – anything that is digital and visual. Right now, I’m a full-time employee and a freelancer. I’ve been a freelancer for four years already.
I only have three hours per day for freelance work, so it takes two to three days to finish a project. The longest project I’ve had lasted six months. With one customer, I also have an ongoing contract which has lasted for a year and a half. It’s freelance work where the customer sends me a project and I do it. We have negotiated a price for projects, so we don’t need to negotiate on prices and schedules anymore – they just send me a project and I send them back the product. Because it’s freelance work, no additional contracts are needed.
Since I work on an online platform, I have customers all over the world. With gig work, mostly due to time differences, I have a 24-hour delay, meaning that if a customer sends me a project, I have 24 hours to reply and submit my one-day projects, that is, three-hour projects. I’d say that 80 per cent of my gigs last for one day.
When I started, I first looked for work mostly locally. But then a fellow language course student told me about the Upwork platform on which they were already working. Upwork is a freelance platform that enables getting jobs all over the world; through it, customers can easily find you. Every day, you get emails about new work opportunities. You need to make a proposition about the offers before you can claim them.
Upwork is a really good platform for freelance work. Of course, it is a platform, so they take a provision of 1–2 per cent from each payment. They mediate all kinds of work, not just visual design. They have translation work and all kinds of work you can do remotely. It’s my main channel for freelance work these days.
In the spring of 2020, a company offered me work either in full-time employment relationship or as a freelancer. Since salaried work has many benefits, such as regular income, occupational health services and so on, I chose salaried work as a visual artist. So, now I do that and freelance work on the side. Therefore, I have more freedom of choice in freelance work because the salaried work pays my bills and all that.
In the salaried work, I have flexible working hours and flexibility regarding where I work. At the office, I have a work station with everything I need, but, since my work computer is a laptop, depending on the project, I can work at home or at the office. If necessary, I can split my working hours so that I work for 12 hours a day for three days in a row, which correlates really well with my freelance work.
Via Upwork, you can work even before you’ve graduated because the customers don’t really care about your education. They look at your profile, your portfolio and your project proposition, and if your price is right and the quality of your work is visible on the platform, you can get a gig. After six months, you can have enough experience and proof of your expertise on Upwork so that nobody is interested in whether you have a degree or not. It’s all about the quality you produce and how it’s ranked there.
I take care of my health. For example, I have bought a better office chair and an ergonomic mouse and stuff like that. I also take care of my working environment both at the office and at home … And I mean both my physical and mental health. In freelance work, it’s really easy to end up working more than you should, and that’s why I’ve adjusted my price level and delivery times. If I make a contract that causes me a lot of stress, it affects so many things and stops me from taking other assignments.
Overworking is the greatest risk for self-employed people, but, then again, self-employment gives you an opportunity to spend more time with your family, for example. I could double my monthly income, but I don’t want to do it because it could have a negative effect on the time I get to spend with my family.